My story.

Hey, thanks for visiting my website! I appreciate that you’re here and taking the time to get to know me a bit better. I’ll get right into it.

I usually say my creative and entrepreneurial story starts in 2011 when I enrolled in Vancouver Film School (VFS). However, I’ve been trying to develop projects, create art, and make money from doing so for pretty much as long as I can remember. Attending VFS and taking the Entertainment Business Management diploma program is really what gave me my start though. It’s there that I got my foundational skills, knowledge and connections to start giving my ideas traction. Ever since then I’ve been chasing all things creative and entrepreneurial.

After graduating in 2012, I got right into things and started my first two businesses. One of which was a live events company (Hysteria Events) and the other was a specialty creative agency called Timedrops Media. I learned so much about entrepreneurship, hard work, creativity and an abundance of other things while working on those businesses. They lasted for a few years and then eventually fizzled out. After reflecting on what didn’t work for those ventures, I realized sales was a core issue and a weakness of mine. Without sales, no business can last. So I decided to get back into the job market and took a job as an inside sales representative for BuildDirect, an e-commerce building supplies company. I took that job as an opportunity to work on something I wasn’t strong at yet, and to get more comfortable with the uncomfortable, forcing myself to grow and learn.

Now, fast forward two years while working at BuildDirect, I had learned a ton about sales, communications and myself. From there I decided I wanted to move on and continue down this path of challenging myself and learning new things. So I took a job offer at the Business Development Bank (BDC), within their consulting division which had me working alongside some really smart and talented people. BDC directly supports Canadian entrepreneurs with financing and advisory services. Being in the consulting division, I was once again immersed in this world of entrepreneurship, and realizing that the ultimate career for me was going to involve carving a path of my own, building a business… or several.

After a year of working at BDC, I started getting the itch to leave and pursue my own passions again. I began using any free time I had, hustling in the evenings, sending cold emails and trying to land marketing contracts. After a few months, I successfully landed my first three social media marketing and content creation retainers, and from that, replaced my income and decided it was time to make the jump back into full time entrepreneurship. That’s when Joda Creative was born, a digital and creative marketing agency that I started with my friend, Joel Schat.

Together at Joda Creative, we did our first million dollars as entrepreneurs over the next five years. We created content for Audi Canada, McArthurGlen Designer Outlets, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Vessi Footwear, OpenRoad Auto Group and so many more amazing brands over the years. Joda Creative taught me so much of what I know today, and I loved every moment of building that business. Some moments were truly amazing, and others, very hard. The memories, people and adventures that we had at that agency though will always hold a special place in my heart.

So that brings my story back up to date. Joel and I decided to stop running Joda Creative in April, 2020 and instead pursue other passions. We didn’t end Joda Creative because of the pandemic, but rather the pandemic moved the timeline up of something that was likely to happen later that year or the following one. Did we lose business and struggle from the pandemic like a lot of other businesses? Yes. Could we have pulled through and continued going? I think so, yes. Did we still want to continue at that point? No, we were both ready to move on and begin new chapters in our lives.

So what’s that new chapter look like for me? Well, first and foremost, I’m a photographer and video producer, and I want to create content with brands that excite me and are having a positive impact on the world. If I describe this next chapter for me in a more holistic way though, I’d say that I want to take everything I’ve learned from my past experiences, combine that with my passions for making art and personal development, and use that to build the life that I can only currently dream of. I’m going to develop multiple income streams through a variety of creative ways, and do the best job I can of documenting all of that happening over the coming years. At the end of it all, I just want to have a positive impact on my family, friends, community, and the world at large.

If you’re interested in following along, you can join my newsletter at the bottom of this page, as well as subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thanks for taking the time to read my story. Feel free to reach out anytime, I’m always down to connect.

Three of my favorite quotes.

I keep these (and a few others) in front of my workspace at all times to remind me of what’s important.